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Emerging Technology Could Reduce Crashes

February 2017

It’s a situation that happens all too often. Drivers fail to see someone in their blind spot, a pedestrian accidentally enters a lane of traffic, or an object suddenly becomes a hazard in the road. All these things can cause an accident, and when lives are at risk, even minor mistakes can have a major impact.

But what if we had a way for our cars to be able to sense their surroundings better? What if we had the ability to anticipate a crash before it happens? No, we don’t need to be psychic. It turns out that a new wireless technology could be the key to preventing some of these types of crashes.

Vehicle-to-vehicle Communications (V2V) is a new concept that utilizes a wireless protocol similar to Wi-Fi, where vehicles have the ability to communicate in short ranges to other vehicles equipped with the same technology:

Potential uses of this feature could alert drivers to accidents up ahead in real-time, along with warning of a potential crash by sensing objects in their immediate surroundings.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the driving force behind advancing V2V by partnering with automakers to make it a reality. This could have a huge impact on saving lives as NHTSA estimates V2V has the lifesaving potential of addressing 80% of multi-vehicle crashes.

Here’s how it works:

Just as with any new safety feature, we cannot rely on technology alone. V2V will assist drivers to help them react quicker to avoid crashes, but we will still have to follow the standard protocol on the road: stay alert, follow the speed limit and slow down for roadway workers and emergency vehicles.

Even with this technology, our police will still need to enforce speeding as crashes are alarmingly on an upward trend. Optotraffic will continue to work with law enforcement to increase traffic safety by offering innovative photo enforcement programs such as red light, speed, parking and more.